What's Your Job Application Email?

Hope everybody had a safe and excellent July 4th.  Now that the festivities are over, it's back to business.

There isn't much that doesn't take place online these days.  Who needs to go out to the mall for holiday shopping when you can get everything you need with the click of a mouse?  Heck, you can even order food over the Internet now.  And as we all know, the job search is now almost exclusively done via the web.  This is all pretty obvious stuff, but here's something you might not have known: Your email address can directly affect whether you get a job or not.

As much as you may love your main address, it simply won't look good to an employer to receive an e-mail from moocow@yahoo.com.  That's why you should create a separate job application email address.  There are plenty of free email services on the Internet, and it doesn't matter which one you use.  I have always preferred Gmail because of its simple interface, but Yahoo or MSN works just as well.  The most important thing is that your email account is professional.  It doesn't have to be anything more complicated than your first and last name.

There's another advantage to having a separate email: Organization.  Since your job application email should only be getting messages from places you have applied to, you won't have to rummage through spam to find relevant emails.  This also decreases the likelihood you will delete an important message by mistake. 

So do yourself a favor and create a new email address.  Even if your personal email does not have an embarrassing name, it will at least help you stay organized.